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Everything here represents my own opinion unless clearly stated otherwise. I do this on my personal time for my own satisfaction. Nothing should be construed as specific advice as you have to pay for advice that goes beyond generalizations.

Documentum 6.5 is Released

Just so you know, last night I saw the first bits of D6.5 on the download site. The entire core stack is out. If you are a partner, you may not see some components as they are fixing some of the entitlements. I expect that to be fixed quickly. [Edit 8/5/2008: Fixed.] Share and enjoy.

Also, D7 is slated for Q4 2009. This is on schedule for 18 months after D6.5, as their strategy for releases dictates.

CenterStage Update

The upcoming CenterStage beta is part of the D6.5 marketing spiel. Today I attended a CenterStage (formerly Magellan) web cast for partners. A lot of confirmation of past information from ECM World. They are still aiming for CenterStage to work with D6, though sp1 is required. That isn’t a problem as deploying a release without the first service pack is asking for trouble.

There was a slide comparing SharePoint and CenterStage with a focus how CenterStage is not designed to replace SharePoint. They listed features that SharePoint had that CenterStage did not have. The biggest point is that SharePoint is a portal while CenterStage is not. CenterStage is a collaboration system only, with limited customization capabilities with the initial release. Funny thing about the slide, the SharePoint “check-marks” were a red “X” and CenterStage had a green check.

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8 thoughts on “Documentum 6.5 is Released”

Lee Smithsays:

Thanks for the update Pie, I’ll have a look.

Interesting note on the webinar, I didn’t join this one but it sounded quite interesting. SharePoint as the Portal is clearly where Documentum see things, but MOSS is so much more than a Portal. I’m working on something currently where SharePoint will be a Portal interface on top of Documentum, but it will NOT replace the Documentum interface. Portals should not replace the application which they are presenting, but show the key information and features. This raises a number of questions:

– why pay for the full MOSS license if you just want to use it as a Portal?
– do Documentum see that J2EE Portal Containers are less important now than SharePoint? (Given Oracle and BEA there is less choice in this market)

Also remember to really exploit Documentum through a MOSS Portal customers will need 6.5 if they want to use DFS, there is so much more available in 6.5 on DFS…developing a MOSS client in anything but DFS now would be strange.

“MOSS is so much more than a portal” – says who Lee ? Microsoft Marketing ? Its a portal, and like all portal software that really means its a developer framework, and it comes with add on’s like Plumbtree/BEA/Oracle Aqualogic which had DM and WCM modules, like IBM WebSphere with DM and WCM modules (and of course integration with IBM’s federated RM and all the social networking goodies) etc etc

Could you technically cut the crappy document library and stuff out of MOSS and sell it as a ‘pure’ portal, probably, but its Microsoft “Office” Sharepoint server for a reason – its tied to the cash cow. Rumours are that the next iteration will be even more closely linked into Office.

Part of me wants EMC or just somebody to take them on at their own game, but the ‘CenterStage is not Sharepoint’ message is an honest and sensible one. Now if only we could get MS to stop telling everyone Sharepoint is ECM……

I think you answer your question yourself Jed. The fact that you say probably to the question of selling MOSS as a ‘pure’ Portal means there is doubt. Going further, as you say, the next release is more tightly integrated with Office. SharePoint does have basic content services, I’m not a fan of the way it has been done but it meets the needs a large percentage of the market. Completely agree on the statement about SharePoint not being an ECM, its way off the capability of a Documentum, FileNet or OpenText product set. The problem goes back to the usual…it is viral. Get it in there, get it doing basic stuff, get people using….then grow its footprint, by hook or by crook.

As a document manager for 12 years, I am glad to see 6.5 with new features, but feel there was still more room for improvements. I have a job to convince my company a way forward globally, dctm 6.5 does not offer that as a package, more input from myself and creation is required.